Setting up my new computer / server

Setting up my new computer / server

I’ve built my new desktop computer / server and now have it up an running. It’s been 4 years since my last PC, so it was time for an upgrade. The biggest advantages of the new computer are a dual-core processor, a super-quiet case, and a RAID hard drive controller card that provides protection against drive failures and lets me add disks to the array to make one huge drive. Biggest advantage: all of my movies stored on my network, so that I can use the PC in my basement to browse and play movies. Just like TiVo, only with a better looking interface (Windows Media Center 2005 + My Movies plugin).

Update 2006-Mar-19: Asus released a new beta bios, version 10.11-006, that fixed the A8N-SLI Premium / RAID card compatibility issue. I’m glad that it is released and fixed, but disappointed that it took them so long.

Old Info about Hardware Incompatibility:For the first time in years, I’ve had a hardware compatibility issue. The is odd because I’ve probably built or upgraded 15 different computers over the past few years and issues seem to be a thing of the past. Not now; my Asus A8N-SLI Premium motherboard does not properly recognize my Areca ARC-1230 RAID card. I had to place it into “dual video card mode” to even get it to acknowledge the card. Now, exactly every other time I reset the system, the motherboard fails to recognize the card. So every single time I reboot, I have to wait for the BIOS power-on self-test to complete and then hit CTRL+ALT+Delete to reboot and recognize the card. BIOS updates have not helped and I’ve changed every single setting in the BIOS to no avail. I e-mailed ASUS technical support, but 6 days later and they still have not even acknowledged the request.
I did find some info on the problem, here are the relevant links:From planetamd64.comFrom anandtech.com

I did run into one issue when I installed Windows. My card-reader was plugged-in and it has 4 drive letters. My main hard drive, instead of being Drive C, was Drive G because Windows assigned C, D, E, F to the card reader (ahead of the hard drive). Brilliant. I had to unplug the card reader and reinstall Windows because that is the easiest way to fix the problem. This really needs to be fixed in the new Windows Vista.

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5 Comments

Have you had any more luck with this Areca and the Asus A8N-SLI ???

I don’t really want to go down the Opteron s940, Reg ECC DDR, PCI-X route if I can avoid it.

Seems like PCI-e support is hit and miss for anything other than video cards. I really dont give a toss about SLI gaming. Stuffed if I can find a PCI-e AMD motherboard with a PCIe x8 or PCIe x4 (with open end and thus physically x8 compatible) slot.

Those darn s939 Opteron servers boards, except for one limited Supermicro/Aplus model, seem to be nowhere.

It all make my head hurt.

Have you tried Linux at all ? I read about a few users with some sort of timing issue when using the Areca PCIe controller.

I’ve installed the latest beta bios from Asus and still no change with the A8N-SLI Premium. It only boots properly every other time. I’ve exchanged e-mails with other users and the A8N-SLI Deluxe version does work properly with the Areca RAID card; not sure why the near-identical Premium version won’t. Very frustrating. I guess I need to “downgrade” to that motherboard. I agree that server boards are too rare and expensive to consider; there are just not many alternatives to consider. It is possible to use an exacto knife to cut the end off of a a 2x or 4x PCI-e slot, but you wouldn’t get the full 8x performance, so I’m not considering that.

I have not tried Linux at all. I’m using WinServer 2003, though I wish I just would have going with XP as I’m not really using any of it’s extra features. I’ve also read of timing issues with the Areca controller; I’ve haven’t noticed anything with Windows because it apparently takes-over and resolves any issues.

I do have another problem with the computer. It will just completely turn off for no reason. It won’t reboot or show a Windows BSOD crash screen, it will just completely shut down. It is not due to a power failure, so I’m not sure what the issue could be.

Hey, I randomly found this post while googling. So this raid card works with the premium now? I have 5 WD 320GB’s just waiting for a raid card and apperently the promise offering is terrible. Glad things worked out for you 🙂

Yes, the Asus A8N-SLI Premium motherboard now works with PCI-E RAID cards. ASUS apparently figured this out in early December, 2005 but didn’t release it to the public until March, 2006. I’m frustrated I had to wait that long, but a least everything is working now!